Shani De Corte, a 23-year-old woman who survived the 2016 Brussels attack but was severely psychologically affected, was authorized by the Belgian State to receive Euthanasia. His death occurred in May 2022, but his case was known only in the last hours.

De Corte was 17 and was waiting to embark on his graduation trip to Rome when a the bomb exploded a few meters away from her on March 22, 2016 in the lobby of Brussels airport, a terrorist attack perpetrated by ISIS which resulted in 34 deaths and over 300 injuries.

The young woman survived the attack without physical injuries, but was severely affected psychologically, and in the years following the attack she was hospitalized several times in a psychiatric hospital in Antwerp, where he had already been treated before the attacks for mental health problems.

De Corte was already suffering from a severe mental illness (according to the Belgian media, he was hiring up to 11 tablets per day) when in 2018 she suffered sexual violence by another patient in the psychiatric hospital where she was hospitalized.

After a suicide attempt in 2020, De Corte decided to petition the Belgian state to authorize her to receive euthanasia, legal in Belgium since 2002. Based on the explanation that she suffered from “unalterable mental suffering”, she made several requests that were rejected.

After the first refusals, the young woman asked for help from Leif, an organization that defends the right to death with dignity. In April 2022 she reintroduced her order of hers this time validated by two psychiatrists, which was granted.

The Belgian press reported that De Corte died surrounded by her family on May 7, 2022.

“The young woman suffered such psychological pain that your request has been logically accepted“, the Federal Commission for the control and evaluation of euthanasia explained to the RTBF (Belgian Radio and Television of the French Community).

Although euthanasia is legal in Belgium and the psychiatrists involved insisted that the procedure be carried out in accordance with the regulations, the Belgian press reported that a prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on the subject, but there is still no official confirmation.

The attack on Brussels

The attacks in Brussels of 22 March 2016 left a balance of 34 dead and more than 300 injured at the airport of the Belgian capital and at the metro station that serves the district where the institutions of the European Union are located.

Of the 34 victims, 14 people lost their lives in the attack with a double nail bomb at Zaventem International Airport. A third kamikaze attempted to detonate another bomb, but failed because the shock wave from the second attack prevented him from doing so.

An hour later the explosion occurred in the subway, which was located 10 kilometers from the airport. Over there 20 people died.

The attack, for which ISIS claimed responsibility, was carried out by a terrorist cell involved in the 2015 Paris attacks, and was intensely persecuted in Brussels by the police.

RFI